Hammad hampir kehilangan kesabaran melihat sikap acuh tak acuh Alexander ketika tiba-tiba dia mendengar suara gemerisik lembut dari kejauhan. Suara itu, awalnya pelan, dengan cepat menjadi lebih keras. Dia menatap ke langit ke arah pandangan Alexander dan melihat sepuluh bola api terbang ke arah mereka dengan kecepatan mengerikan!
"Hindar!" itulah satu-satunya kata yang sempat dia teriakkan sebelum sepuluh bola api itu menghantam tanah di depan mereka, menghancurkan jalan sepenuhnya dan menderakkan puing-puing ke mana-mana. Awan debu menutupi udara, tapi cepat teriup hembusan angin mengungkap sepuluh kapsul silinder tinggi. Tutup salah satunya ditendang terbuka, mengungkap seorang prajurit, berpelengan penuh dengan perangkat hitam sintetis. Segera setelahnya kapsul-kapsul lain juga terbuka, mengungkap prajurit-prajurit di dalamnya. Semuanya berpakaian seragam, dan dengan topeng menutupi wajah mereka tak akan bisa dibedakan kalau bukan karena masing-masing membawa senjata berbeda.
Salah satu prajurit yang membawa kapak dan perisai berjalan ke arah Alexander dan berlutut sambil berteriak, "Titan 036 melapor untuk tugas."
Alexander menatap kultivator Golden Core yang berlutut di hadapannya, tapi wajahnya tetap datar tanpa ekspresi.
"Aku ingin ruang udara di atas seluruh Mesir ditutup dan semua lalu lintas keluar dihentikan. Aku ingin penempatan penuh Brigade Morrison ke-3 di seluruh Mesir, dan semua pergerakan kultivator harus dihentikan sementara. Aku ingin pemilik rumah lelang itu ditemukan dan ditangkap, dan aku ingin kepala regional A.D.F. dalam genggaman kita juga. Evakuasi warga sipil di sekitar dan tangkap semua penyerangku. Kalau penangkapan terlalu sulit, bunuh saja. Aku juga butuh set jarum akupunktur, tapi kalau tidak ada yang punya, pisau sangat tajam juga bisa."
"Kalian mendapat perintah, Titan," meraung Titan 036, saat dia cepat berbalik dan mulai mengejar penyerang Alexander. Begitu kapsul-kapsul itu mendarat di jalan, para penyerang mulai melarikan diri, mengaktifkan segala macam teknik menghilangkan jejak — tapi itu bukan urusan Alexander. Dia tidak meragukan kemampuan Titan untuk menemukan mereka.
Salah satu Titan mendekati Alexander dan menyerahkan tas hitam, lalu cepat pergi juga. Tak satu pun Titan tinggal di belakang untuk melindungi Alexander kalau penyerang lain datang — seolah ide dia berbahaya tidak pernah terlintas sama sekali.
Greg dan Helen berdiri beku, merasakan campuran keterkejutan dan ngeri melihat apa yang terjadi. Prajurit turun dari langit? Menyerahkan pasukan ke seluruh Mesir? TANGKAP KEPALA REGIONAL A.D.F.? A.D.F. itu African Defense Front, mirip Blue Bird karena bertanggung jawab memantau aktivitas kultivator di Afrika, tapi berbeda karena bukan satu organisasi melainkan gugusan organisasi kecil yang bergabung. Meski begitu, bukan berarti A.D.F. lemah, atau bisa dimainkan main.
Mengabaikan kebingungan mereka, Alexander berbalik ke Greg dan berlari ke arahnya. Sebelum Greg sempat sadar apa yang terjadi, Alexander memukul keras perutnya! Napas Greg tercekik saat dia lengkung kesakitan, muntah mengeluarkan isi perutnya. Tapi itu belum yang terparah — Alexander tidak hanya memukul, dia melepaskan ledakan energi spiritual ke tubuh Greg yang langsung membakar meridiannya. Semua energi spiritual yang terkumpul seumur hidup Greg keluar dari tubuhnya, karena dia telah jadi lumpuh.
Tanpa peduli reaksinya, Alexander membalikkan tubuh Greg dan melepas bajunya, lalu mengeluarkan empat jarum akupunktur. Titan tentu tidak menyimpan jarum ini untuk keperluan medis! Jarum-jarum itu dilapisi racun dan bisa dipakai senjata tersembunyi, apalagi terbuat dari logam yang menghantarkan energi spiritual memperbanyak kegunaannya. Menggunakan teknik roh sederhana, Alexander memanggil api di tangannya yang dipakai mensterilkan jarum akupunktur dan menguapkan racun di atasnya — dia tidak bisa membiarkan Greg mati tidak sengaja sebelum tugasnya selesai.
Begitu jarum-jarum itu steril, dia menusukkannya ke jantung Greg, sampai akhirnya mencapai Mother Gu Meridian Jantung. Seperti namanya, Mother Gu Meridian Jantung menempel pada meridian di sekitar jantung. Mother Gu memakan energi spiritual yang mengalir di meridian untuk bertelur, yang nanti akan menetas dan bisa ditanam ke tubuh lain. Child Gu juga akan menemukan jalan ke jantung inang baru, tapi beda dengan induknya, bukan memakan energi spiritual tapi masuk dormant. Pengguna Mother Gu bisa mengirim sinyal ke child Gu dan mengontrolnya menyerang jantung inang, akhirnya menguasai nyawa inang.
Alexander familiar dengan Gu, dan naturalmente tahu cara efektif mengatasinya. Mengeluarkan Mother dan child Gu harus hati-hati, karena kerusakan meridian sangat sulit disembuhkan. Itu sebabnya hal pertama yang Alexander lakukan melumpuhkan Greg, supaya dia kehilangan kontrol atas Mother Gu. Lalu, sebelum Mother Gu sempat berbuat apa pun, Alexander menusuk tubuhnya dengan jarum akupunktur dan menyalurkan energi spiritualnya sendiri lewat jarum itu untuk menguasai Mother Gu.
Pada titik ini dia memperlambat, karena tidak boleh gegabah, dan memerintahkan Mother Gu mengeluarkan child Gu dari tubuhnya. Mother Gu agak menolak, karena asing dengan energi spiritual baru ini, tapi akhirnya merasa terancam nyawa, Gu itu menyerah. Alexander merasakan child Gu di tubuhnya bergerak ke kulit. Waktunya terlalu singkat dan belum mencapai jantung Alexander, yang memproses lebih simpel. Akhirnya, dari dekat perutnya menembus kulit dan keluar, menggeliat di tanah. Alexander memandangnya dengan jijik lalu membakarnya!
Bebas dari bahaya, Alexander mencabut jarum akupunktur dari Greg dan menoleh ke arah Helen. Saat ini, dia sudah jauh lebih tenang dan hanya menatap kedua temannya dengan kesedihan di matanya.
"Sepertinya kita tengah dalam percakapan," kata Alexander, nada tenang dan santai seolah dia tidak baru melumpuhkan salah satu teman tertuanya lalu meninggalkannya di tanah untuk mati.
"Kau tanya peranku dalam ini," kata Helen, anehnya tenang juga. "Sejujurnya, aku tidak tahu apa yang mereka inginkan, tapi aku bisa berduga."
"Maksudmu 'mereka' keluargamu? Orang tuamu?"
"Aku tidak tahu," kata dia dengan sedih. "Aku terima instruksi lewat saluran resmi keluarga, tapi aku tidak bisa yakin siapa yang memberi perintah. Aku duga itu cadangan, kalau hal tidak berjalan sesuai rencana. Faktanya, aku kira mereka justru berharap hal tidak berjalan sesuai rencana mereka."
"Oh, apa yang membuatmu bilang begitu?"
"Tugasku cuma meracunimu. Ada sepuluh racun, bernama 10 Racun Ishkbaal. Tahukah kau apa fungsinya?"
Pertanyaan itu sedikit mengganggu Alexander, karena meski pendidikannya luas, dia tidak pernah mendengarnya. Berdasarkan kelewatan jawabannya Helen bisa menebak jawabannya.
"Mereka aneh. Sendirian, racun-racun itu tidak berapa-apa. Mereka dormant di tubuhmu, potensial selamanya, tapi kalau kesembilan belas digabungkan di aliran darah, semuanya mulai beraksi independen. Sepuluhnya punya efek berbeda, dan tidak semuanya mematikan. Satu mempengaruhi stabilitas meridian, satu mencemari energi spiritual, satu menimbulkan ruam sangat sakit di seluruh tubuh, satu mempengaruhi otak, sisanya aku tidak berhasil pahami. Tapi aku kira tujuannya membingungkan dokter, alih-alih sadar itu sepuluh racun berbeda, dokter mungkin kira semua gejala itu dari satu racun. Kalau mereka sembuhkan efek mematikan, racun lain tetap bisa menghancurkan bakat kultivasimu, membuatmu tidak mungkin mencapai level lebih tinggi. Tentu, ini cuma dugaanku. Mereka beri aku informasi minim, mungkin semua dugaanku salah dari awal."
"Dugaan yang berani," kata Alexander, akui dia tersentak dengan racun keji itu. "Lalu, kalau keluargamu tidak beri informasi, bagaimana kau bisa berduga begitu jauh, bahkan menebak beberapa efek racunnya?"
Helen tersenyum lemah ke temannya. Dia sangat pintar di banyak hal, tapi terkadang jawaban yang paling jelas justru meleset darinya.
"Tau, aku tidak pernah dendam ke keluarga," kata dia, menatap ke kejauhan. "Meski jelas mereka membesarkanku untuk memanfaatkanku, aku tahu tidak ada yang gratis di dunia ini. Daripada kehidupan sulit anak yatim, aku hidup hidup mewah gadis kaya di kalangan atas. Aku bisa kultivasi dengan sumber daya terbaik yang orang lain hanya bisa impikan, dan punya pengalaman yang bisa diminta. Sebagai balasannya, kalau yang harus kulakukan hanya menikah dengan baik, aku tidak pernah rasa itu bayaran besar, apalagi tidak harus menikah politik yang buruk."
Dia menatap Alexander dengan air mata di matanya, tapi dia hanya menatap balik dengan tenang. Dia orang aneh, kadang dia pikir dia punya hati baja, kadang dia rasa dia orang paling lembut di bumi. Sekarang di depannya berdiri versi hati baja, tapi bisakah dia disalahkan? Teman dekatnya seumur hidup baru saja mencoba membunuhnya.
"Aku tidak pernah tak bersyukur, dan aku akan lakukan apa pun yang mereka minta, tapi saat mereka minta aku mengkhianati temanku, bagaimana bisa aku?" Hati-hati dia mengulurkan tangan ke rambut dan menarik. Dia memakai wig! Di bawah wig, kulit kepalanya ditutupi bisul-bisol merah!
"Aku harus menelan racun untuk mempersiapkannya. Mereka ajarkan teknik yang mentransfer semua racun ke satu tetes darah, dan yang kulakukan hanya mengekspos tetes itu ke kulitmu dan kau akan teracuni. Tapi apakah aku benar-benar perlu mengeksposmu ke tetes darah? Mereka beri informasi sangat minim, bagaimana kalau cara transmisi lain? Mungkin aku hanya perlu dekat denganmu dan racun tertular sendiri. Karena mereka sudah memutuskan memakaiku sebagai bidak, mengapa mereka harus memberitahu aku kebenaran? Aku tidak bisa ambil risiko, jadi aku langsung pakai teknik dan mengaktifkan racun. Sudah beberapa hari, racun sudah terserap penuh oleh tubuhku. Aku tidak tahu apa lagi yang dilakukan racun, tapi aku duga aku tidak punya waktu lama lagi."
Kali ini, Alexander benar-benar terkejut. Zeus melarikan diri seperti pengecut dan Greg mengkhianatinya di kesempatan pertama tidak terlalu mengganggunya, entah kenapa di dalam hatinya dia sudah menduga. Tapi Helen… semakin lama dia memandangnya, semakin dia sadar bahwa warna kulitnya tidak normal. Dia mendekati dia dan perlahan, lembut, mengangkat tangan ke wajahnya. Lemah lembut, memastikan tidak terlalu keras, dia mengusap jempolnya di wajahnya, mengelupas lapisan-lapis riasan. Dia cantik, seperti biasa, dan hanya garis lurus kecil yang mengungkapkan di bawah fasad cantik itu kulitnya putih pucat seperti orang di ranjang mati."
Hammad was about to lose his temper at Alexander’s casual attitude when he suddenly heard a soft roaring in the distance. The sound, though soft at first, was quickly becoming louder. He looked up in the sky towards where Alexander was looking and saw ten flaming balls shooting towards them at breakneck speed!
“Dodge!” was all he had time to shout before the ten flaming balls crashed into the ground before them, completely destroying the road and launching debris everywhere. A cloud of dust filled the air, but it was quickly blown away by a gust of wind revealing ten tall, cylindrical pods. A hatch on one of them was kicked open, revealing a soldier, fully armored in black, synthetic gear. Immediately after the other pods were opened as well, revealing the soldiers within. They all were dressed identically, and with a mask over their face you would not be able to tell them apart if they weren’t all carrying different weapons.
One of the soldiers who was carrying an ax and a shield walked towards Alexander and kneeled before shouting, “Titan 036 reporting for duty.”
Alexander looked at the Golden Core cultivator kneeling before him, but maintained an indifferent expression on his face.
“I want the airspace above all of Egypt sealed and all outgoing traffic stopped. I want full deployment of the 3rd Morrison Brigade in all of Egypt, and all cultivator movement needs to be temporarily stopped. I want the owner of that auction house found and captured, and I want the regional head for A.D.F. in our custody as well. Evacuate nearby civilians and capture all of my assailants. If capture becomes too difficult simply kill them. I also need a set of acupuncture needles, but if none of you have a set, a very sharp knife will do.” .
“You have your orders Titans,” roared Titan 036, as he quickly turned around and started chasing Alexander’s assassins. As soon as the pods had crashed onto the road the assassins started to flee, deploying all kinds of techniques eliminating their traces – but that was none of Alexander’s concerns. He did not doubt the Titans ability to find them.
One of the Titans approached Alexander and handed him a black pouch, before quickly leaving as well. None of the Titans stayed behind to protect Alexander in case more assassins came after him – it was as if the idea of him being in danger never occurred to them at all.
Greg and Helen stood frozen, feeling a mix of shock and horror at what was happening. Soldiers had dropped from the sky? Deploying troops in all of Egypt? CAPTURE THE REGION HEAD OF A.D.F.? The A.D.F. was the African Defense Front, similar to Blue Bird in that it was responsible for monitoring cultivator activity in Africa, but different from Blue Bird in that instead of being one organization it was a cluster of smaller organizations banding together. Still, that did not mean the A.D.F. was weak, or something that could be casually be messed with.
Ignoring their confusion, Alexander turned towards Greg and dashed towards him. Before he had time to realize what was happening, Alexander punched hard directly in the stomach! The wind left Greg’s body as he keeled over in pain, vomiting out the contents of his stomach. But that wasn’t the worst of it – Alexander had not only punched him, he had released a burst of spiritual energy in Greg’s body directly burning his meridians. All the spiritual energy Greg had accumulated in his life left his body, for he had become crippled.
Paying no mind to his reaction Alexander flipped him over and removed his shirt, before taking out four acupuncture needles. The Titans naturally didn’t keep these needles for medicinal purposes! They were coated in poison and could be used as hidden weapons, not to mention they were made from a metal that conducted spiritual energy increasing their uses manifold. Using a simple spirit technique, Alexander summoned a flame in his hand which he used to sterilize the acupuncture needles and vaporize any poison on it – he could not afford to accidentally kill Greg before his task was complete.
Once the needles were sterilized he directly injected them into Greg’s heart, until they eventually reached the Heart Meridian Mother Gu. As it’s name suggested, the Heart Meridian Mother Gu attached itself to the meridians around one’s heart. The Mother Gu fed on the spiritual energy coursing through the meridians to lay eggs, which would eventually hatch and then could be implanted to other bodies. The child Gu would also find its way to the heart of its new host, but unlike its mother instead of feeding on the spiritual energy it would go dormant. The user of the Mother Gu could send signals to the child Gu and control it to attack its host’s heart, ultimately gaining control over the host’s life.
Alexander was familiar with the Gu, and thus naturally knew effective ways to deal with it. Removing both the Mother and child Gu had to be done carefully, as any damage to the meridians was extremely difficult to heal. That’s why the first thing Alexander did was cripple Greg, so that he would lose control over the Mother Gu. Then, before the Mother Gu had a chance to do anything Alexander pierced its body with the acupuncture needles and channeled his own spiritual energy through them to gain control of the Mother Gu.
At this point he slowed down, as he could not afford to be careless, and commanded the Mother Gu to remove the child Gu from his body. The Mother Gu resisted for a bit, as it was unfamiliar with this new spiritual energy, but eventually sensing a threat to its life the Gu gave in. Alexander felt the child Gu in his body making its way to his skin. The time was too short and it had not yet reached Alexander’s heart, which made the process simpler. Finally, from near his stomach it broke through his skin and fell out, wriggling on the ground. Alexander gave it a disgusted look before burning it!
Finally free from danger, Alexander removed the acupuncture needles from Greg and turned to look towards Helen. By now, she had calmed down a lot and she only looked towards her two friends with sadness in her eyes.
“I believe we were in the middle of a conversation,” Alexander said, his tone calm and casual as if he had not just crippled one of his oldest friends and then left him on the ground to die.
“You asked me what my role was in this,” Helen said, strangely quite calm herself. “To be honest, I don’t know what they wanted, but I can speculate.”
“By ‘they’ you mean your family? Was it your parents?”
“I don’t know,” she said forlornly. “I received instructions via the official family channels, but I cannot be sure who gave the orders. I guess that was a contingency, in case things don’t go according to plan. In fact, I think they depended on things not going according to their plans.”
“Oh, what makes you say that?”
“My only job was to poison you. There were ten poisons, called the 10 poisons of Ishkbaal. Do you know what they do?”
This question troubled Alexander slightly, as despite his extensive education he had never heard of them before. Based on his delay in answering Helen was able to guess the answer.
“They’re strange. On their own, the poisons do nothing. They lay dormant in your body, potentially forever, but if all ten are combined together in the bloodstream, they all begin to act independently. All ten have different effects, and not all are lethal. One affects the stability of your meridian, one pollutes your spiritual energy, one develops extremely painful rashes all over your body, one affects your brain, the rest I wasn’t able to figure out. But I think the purpose is to confuse doctors, instead of realizing that they’re ten different poisons doctors might think all these symptoms are of one. If they’re able to cure the lethal effects, the other poisons will still be able to destroy your cultivation talent, making it impossible for you to ever reach a higher level. Of course, this is just my guess. They gave me next to no information, maybe everything I guessed was wrong to begin with.”
“Those are bold guesses,” Alexander said, admittedly alarmed by this dastardly poison. “So then, if your family didn’t give you any information how were you able to speculate so much, even guessing some of the poison’s effects?”
Helen smiled weakly at her friend. He was so smart in so many ways, but sometimes it was the obvious answers that eluded him.
“You know, I never resented my family,” she said, looking out into the distance. “Even though it was obvious that they were raising me to use me, I knew that nothing in this world is free. Instead of the difficult life of an orphan, I lived the pampered life of a rich girl in high society. I got to cultivate with the best resources that others can only even dream of, and had experiences one can ask. In exchange, if all I had to do was marry well then I never thought it was a huge price to pay, not to mention it’s not necessary that a political marriage had to be a bad one.”
She looked at Alexander with tears in her eyes, but he only looked back at her calmly. He was a strange person, sometimes she would think he had a heart of steel, and other times she felt like he was the softest person on Earth. Right now before her stood his steel hearted version, but could he be blamed? His closest friends his entire life had just tried to kill him.
“I was never ungrateful, and I would have done whatever they asked of me, but when they asked me to betray my friends, how could I?” Carefully she reached out towards her hair and pulled at it. She was wearing a wig! Under her wig, her scalp was covered in red boils!
“I had to ingest the poisons to prime them. They taught me a technique that would transfer all the poison into one drop of blood, and all I needed to do was expose that drop to your skin and then you would be poisoned. But would I really need to expose you to a drop of blood? They gave me so little information, what if the method of transmission is something else? Maybe I only had to be close to you and the poison would be transmitted on its own. Since they had already decided to use me as a pawn, why did they need to tell me the truth? I couldn’t take the risk, so I directly used the technique and activated the poison. It’s already been a few days, the poison has already been thoroughly absorbed by my body. I don’t know what else the poison does, but I expect I don’t have much longer to live.”
This time, Alexander was thoroughly surprised. Zeus escaping like a coward and Greg betraying him at the first opportunity did not phase him too much, somehow deep down he expected it. But Helen…the more he looked at her, the more he suddenly started to realize that her complexion wasn’t normal. He walked to her and slowly, gently raised his hand to her face. Softly, making sure not to use too much force, he brushed his thumb across her face, removing the many layers of makeup. She looked beautiful, as always, and only a small straight line revealed that beneath the beautiful fa?ade was her deathly pale skin, like that of someone on their deathbed.
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